News

During his 2015 State of the Union address, then-President Barack Obama announced what he promised would be an ambitious public health project. “Tonight, I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes...

This is the 15th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. You can read the first part here. The series...

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva...

"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of...

DARPA logo
By Alex Lash, Xconomy | 10.05.2016

Drugs that use molecular scissors to snip out or replace defective genes. Altered mosquitoes meant to sabotage entire disease-carrying populations...

Two illustrated figures face each other, holding a white flag in conflict management.
By Jon Cohen, Science Magazine | 10.05.2016

The 9-month-old patent battle over CRISPR, a novel genome-editing tool that could have immense commercial value, has taken two surprising...

A hand touches the surface of water, creating a ripple effect from the center.
By Emma Kowal, Discover Society | 10.04.2016

For the last two decades, Indigenous peoples have consistently resisted genetics on local, national and international scales. Awareness of genetics...

Street sign that reads "Short Cut Road."
By Olof Hallonsten, Nature News | 10.03.2016

The eyes of the world are on the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm this week for the announcement of the Nobel...

A fountain pen lays on top of a paper with handwriting.
By Abby Lippman, Impact Ethics | 10.03.2016

Before any discussion of “surrogacy” policy and practice begins in Canada, it is imperative that we attend to the...

"Proceed with caution" traffic sign, against a blue sky.
By Pete Shanks, Deccan Chronicle | 10.02.2016

News broke this week that the first “three-parent” baby had been born. But the untested and controversial nature of the...

A small, spotted pig is in a bucket. The background features a secondary pig.
By John H. Evans, Oxford University Press Blog | 10.01.2016

The US government recently announced that it was lifting its moratorium on funding certain experiments that use human stem cells...

Doctor extracts blood from a patient.
By Viv Groskop, The Guardian | 10.01.2016

A new prenatal test could eradicate Down’s syndrome. Actress Sally Phillips, who has a child with the condition, explains why

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